Excel to Quotejam: A Practical Migration Guide
You’ve decided spreadsheet quoting isn’t cutting it anymore. Maybe it was the pricing error that nearly cost you a deal. Maybe it was the hour you spent looking for a quote from three months ago. Maybe you’re just tired of copy-pasting from price lists.
Whatever brought you here, migrating doesn’t have to be painful. Here’s a practical guide to moving from Excel to Quotejam.
What You’re Gaining
| Excel Reality | With Quotejam |
|---|---|
| 30-60 minutes per quote | Under 5 minutes |
| No idea if customer received it | Customer portal with view tracking |
| Prices scattered across files | Central product catalog |
| Anyone can give any discount | Approval workflows for high discounts |
| ”Which version did I send?” | Full quote history |
Before You Start: Free vs Pro
The free tier is great for evaluating Quotejam — you can create products, build quotes, and send them to customers. But if you want to bulk import your existing product catalog from Excel, that’s a Pro feature.
Free tier (no credit card): 15 customers, 25 products, 50 quotes/month. Add products manually, create quotes, share via customer portal. Everything you need to test if Quotejam works for your workflow.
Pro (from $29/month): Unlimited everything + CSV import, approval workflows, project tracking, custom branding, and team roles. Additional team members $14/month each.
Our recommendation: Start free. Add 5-10 of your most-quoted products manually. Create a few real quotes. Once you’re confident it fits, upgrade to Pro and import your full catalog.
Step 1: Prepare Your Product Data
Whether you import (Pro) or add manually (Free), start by organizing what you have:
- Open your main price list or product spreadsheet
- Identify the key columns: Product Name, SKU/Model Number, Price, Description
- Clean up obvious issues — blank rows, merged cells, duplicate entries
- If you have technical specifications (capacity, ratings, dimensions), note which ones matter most
Don’t aim for perfection. You can always add specs and clean up data after your products are in Quotejam.
Step 2: Build Your Product Catalog
If You’re on Free Tier
Add your top 25 products manually:
- Go to Products → Add Product
- Enter name, SKU, price, and description
- Add technical specifications if relevant
- Assign to a category for organization
Focus on the products you quote most often. You can add more later.
If You’re on Pro
Import in bulk:
- Go to Settings → Import
- Upload your Excel or CSV file
- Quotejam auto-detects most columns — review the mapping
- Click Import
Quotejam creates categories from your data, detects specification columns, and flags duplicates. Most imports finish in under 5 minutes.
Step 3: Add Your Customers
Same approach — start with your active customers:
Free Tier
Add your top 15 customers manually with company name, contact name, and email.
Pro
Import from your CRM export or customer spreadsheet. Map columns and import.
Step 4: Create Your First Real Quote
Don’t create a test quote with fake data. Pick an actual opportunity:
- Click New Quote
- Select the customer
- Add products from your catalog
- Adjust quantities and pricing
- Preview the PDF
- Send via the customer portal
Notice the difference? No copying from price lists. No manual calculations. No reformatting.
Step 5: Establish Your New Workflow
Here’s where the real value starts:
For Daily Quoting
- Always create quotes in Quotejam — stop opening Excel
- Share via the portal link, not email attachments
- Check if customers have viewed or acknowledged your quotes before following up
For Pricing Updates
- Update product prices in the catalog directly
- Existing quotes keep their original prices (they’re snapshots)
- New quotes automatically use current pricing
For Team Coordination (Pro)
- Add team members with appropriate roles
- Set up approval workflows for discounts above your threshold
- Use projects to organize quotes by deal or opportunity
What About Historical Quotes?
You don’t need to import old quotes. They’re reference material — keep them in your file archive.
Going forward, all new quotes live in Quotejam. Within a few weeks, that’s where all your recent history will be. Within a month, you’ll wonder how you worked without search and filtering.
Common Questions
Q: What if my Excel file has errors?
Import what you can, fix the rest manually. Quotejam flags issues during import so you know what needs attention.
Q: Can I get my data out if I need to?
Your data is always yours. Contact support and we’ll provide it in a standard format.
Q: How long does migration actually take?
- Adding 25 products manually: 30-40 minutes
- Importing a full catalog (Pro): 10-30 minutes depending on size
- Adding 15 customers: 15 minutes
- First quote: 5 minutes
Total: about an hour for a working setup. Less time than you spend on quotes in a typical day.
Q: What if my team resists the change?
Start with one sales rep on one real deal. When they create a professional quote in 5 minutes instead of 45, the rest of the team will ask what you’re using.
Ready to stop fighting with spreadsheets? Start free and build your first quote today.